Draft 258

Summary

Draft 258 serves as a visceral architectural study of familial fracture under the weight of burgeoning American militarism during the Great War. The narrative dissects the Alden household, where Mary’s fierce, almost liturgical devotion to the flag clashes violently with Matthew’s uncompromising pacifist rhetoric and George’s paralyzing fear of the front lines. As George’s titular draft number—258—is summoned from the lottery drum, the domestic drama pivots into a labyrinthine espionage thriller. The treacherous Van Bierman, a specter of Teutonic subversion, manipulates Matthew’s ideological purity to mask a nihilistic plot against an aviation plant. It is a cinematic crucible where loyalty is forged in the fires of betrayal and the domestic sphere becomes the primary battleground for national identity, ultimately forcing a reckoning between individual conscience and the collective demands of a nation at the precipice of global upheaval.

Synopsis

Mary Alden and her brothers Matthew and George have extremely different political views. Matthew is a committed pacifist, and is constantly giving speeches against war. George is notified that his draft number, 258, has been called and to report for induction, but he refuses. Mary, on the other hand, is intensely patriotic and comes up with a plan to shame him into reporting for induction. Meanwhile, Matthew is being set up for a patsy by a gang of German secret agents led by Van Bierman who are planning to blow up an airplane factory.